A ranking North Korean official in charge of policies on South Korea will attend a private academic forum in the U.S. next month, an official in Seoul said Friday.Won Tong-yon, deputy director of the United Front Department of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, will travel at the invitation of a pro

North Korea Sept. 30, 2011

President Lee Myung-bak urged aides Friday to exercise greater ethical self-control, saying he wants to make his administration the cleanest in South Korean history, although a series of top secretaries have been implicated in corruption scandals.“We have to keep in mind that our administration was

Social Affairs Sept. 30, 2011

South Korea will soon open a super science data computing hub capable of processing more than 20 petabytes of information, joining a select group of 10 countries that operate such a facility, the science ministry said Thursday.The new Global Science Experimental Data Hub Center (GSDC) will begin ser

Technology Sept. 29, 2011

Chinese authorities released a group of South Korean journalists and others who were detained early last week while on a reporting trip near the Chinese border with North Korea, a foreign ministry official in Seoul said Thursday. The five-member team dispatched by Seoul’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper was

Foreign Affairs Sept. 29, 2011

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) -- The U.S. government on Wednesday vowed full cooperation in the investigation into an alleged rape by an American soldier of a young Korean woman near a military base north of Seoul, according to the South Korean Embassy in Washington.Assistant Secretary of State for East

Foreign Affairs Sept. 29, 2011

A market economy and new business class have emerged in North Korea since the 1990s even though their government will not acknowledge it publicly, a panel of experts said Wednesday. Speaking at a luncheon hosted by the Center for Free Enterprise in Yeouido, Seoul, professor Andrei Lankov of Kookmin

North Korea Sept. 28, 2011

North Korean officials believe the Libyan regime would not have collapsed had it held on to its nuclear weapons, the outgoing British ambassador to Pyongyang said Wednesday, casting doubt on the likelihood that the North will relinquish its nuclear capabilities.The remarks by Ambassador Peter Hughes

North Korea Sept. 28, 2011

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) -- North Korea on Tuesday accused South Korea of seeking “the road to war” but called again for international talks on its nuclear arsenal.South Korea’s conservative government has taken relations with the North “to their worst state with widespread atmosphere of war and confron

North Korea Sept. 28, 2011

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) -- The military commander in charge of U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region expressed concern Tuesday that North Korea will resume belligerence related to its ongoing power succession.“The dynamics surrounding succession and, you know, most importantly, the prospect of con

North Korea Sept. 28, 2011

A housewife’s obsession with her children’s education has led a Seoul court to order she pay 10 million won ($8,500) to her husband in a rare divorce ruling, the family court said Wednesday. The case highlights the excessive attention paid to children’s education by many parents in South Korea.The S

Social Affairs Sept. 28, 2011

BEIJING (Yonhap News) ― North Korea and China agreed to strengthen economic cooperation during talks between their prime ministers in Beijing, China’s state news agency reported Tuesday.The North’s Premier Choe Yong-rim and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao “pledged to promote trade, investment and

North Korea Sept. 27, 2011

Yang Sung-tae was sworn in as the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in South Korea on Tuesday, vowing to bolster transparency and openness of the judiciary.The 63-year-old incoming chief justice, who replaced predecessor Lee Yong-hun, said the current level of South Koreans’ trust toward the ju

Social Affairs Sept. 27, 2011

More than twice as many South Korean soldiers and officers have been charged with violating the anti-communist National Security Law in the current conservative government than in the previous liberal administration, a report showed Tuesday.The law strictly prohibits distribution of publications pra

Defense Sept. 27, 2011

BEIJING (Yonhap News) ― The United States and North Korea are seeking to hold a second round of talks early next month to discuss terms for resuming the long-stalled six-nation negotiations on ending the North’s nuclear weapons programs, a South Korean official said Thursday.The bilateral talks are

North Korea Sept. 22, 2011